Bristol PSV Fishing Club

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Saturday, 12 November 2016

After the previous Sunday's disaster in the Shiplate teams of 3 where I drew peg 1 on Hawthorns (end peg flyer and shortest walk on the venue) and had a day I'd like to erase from the memory bank I was very much looking forward to this one and a bit of open water fishing, well away from any reeds or snag-pits.
For the record, I had an extremely torrid day losing countless fish in tug-of-war battles and ended up with a very disappointing 20-odd pounds, a broken top kit, a tray full of empty winders and a badly bruised ego.
Back to today then and I wasn't expecting big weights as we'd had a hard frost overnight and the sky was clear with little breeze.
As ever I waited at the back of the draw queue for the last peg but it was going to be a long wait as Mr Dearlove was also intent on having it so I gave in and drew 2nd last which gave me peg 73 leaving Will opposite on 53 (I think he called me some names).
So much for my plans of an easy day fishing in open water then as this peg is a corner which houses a great big overhanging tree, bugger, more fun and games then!
I had made up a few new rigs with lighter lines and small hooks, a "double bulk" and a standard version, so these were set up to fish in open water at 14m where it was still only about 3 foot deep, and I made up a beefier rig to fish at the same length under the tree.
No lead rod or waggler, much to my disappointment, as I was a bit hemmed in at this end of the lake.
Bait for the day were 2 pints of stunned red maggots (a bit ambitious), 2 tins of meat (also a bit ambitious) and a tin of hemp. I would have mixed up some groundbait but I was still setting up ten minutes after the all-in so that idea was shelved.
For company I had a very confident Mr Dearlove opposite me (after a hushed tactical discussion with Steve Long) and Matt Taynton next door who has a habit of making my life a misery every time I draw next to him due to his superior angling skills.
Starting off then and I fed some maggots and hemp on the 14m line and some meat and hemp under the tree of doom.
During this time the only person to have caught was Keith Ray who had dropped his first lead chuck on a carp's nose but unfortunately that was his last bite for 5½ hours so you could say that was a bit of a "false dawn".
I went out on the open water rig with 2 stunned maggots and within 5 minutes the float shot under followed by quite a lot of pink elastic. Unfortunately the fish went left and I had to go right to get to my roller which was set up to ship back along the bank resulting in the hook pulling out and a source of amusement for my fellow competitors.
Never mind, I re-fed and stuck with it but the next hour only produced two very small roach.
On the plus side, nobody else was catching much and even the silvers slayers were struggling.
Meanwhile Will was chucking a lead down the bank to the other side of my tree and getting a few bites but missing them all so I had a look down there with a piece of meat on the hook and the float never moved .... it wasn't looking good!
So I fed some maggot and hemp down there and went back out in the open water but it was lifeless.
I had been feeding a few maggots close in on both sides but no bites there either.
Elsewhere Matt Taynton had snared a carp on the waggler with maggot and Will had landed one but lost a couple of big fish at the net (I did offer some kind words of sympathy to make him feel better as he looked a bit despondent).
Back under the tree but with a couple of stunned maggots on the hook and the float went under but that battle was short-lived as I got in a bit of trauma trying to break my pole down and everything went "tits up" and the fish was lost.
To rectify this problem I moved my roller further along the bank so that I could ship back without breaking down and this proved to be a good move as I managed to get the next four fish out of the jungle without drama although one of them beat me up under the platform.
Another try out in open water resulted in a repeat performance from earlier and another lost carp.
So back under the tree for the rest of the match, which wasn't long as Will shouted the "all out" at 3 which was a bit odd as we were fishing til 4 but he hadn't altered the clock on his phone.
I managed another carp from under the tree in the last hour and my 4 carp and 2oz of silvers were enough to win on a very difficult day.
It turned out that the whole of the venue had fished hard, the match on Campbell was won with 17lb and Cary was won with 33lbs (I think)

Full Result:

Steve Burgess (73) ...... 30-5

Matt Taynton (71) ....... 26-3

Keith Ray (57) ........... 21-14

Mark Radford (66) ..... 19-11

Steve o'Toole (56) ...... 11-7

Derek Lucas (59) ........ 9-1

Will / Lee Waller (53/70) .... 8-8

Ron Hardiman (69) ..... 7-11

John Bradford (62) ..... 7-8

and 2 dnw's

Silvers:

Lee Waller (70) .... 8-8

John Bradford (62) .... 7-8

Ironically, while we were fishing Liverpool managed to beat Watford 6-1 which was a similar score to the Carp v Will match in peg 53 but I won't go on about it as it can happen to the best of us!
This Sunday I am back at Shiplate for Team Radford in the Shiplate teams of 3, the Psv B-team (Alan Healey, Left-hook Lionel & Matt Taynton) are up near the top and comfortably ahead of us but I will be on the main lake so a £ from Matt Culpin should be a certainty and one from Alan will see me happy!
And finally, Psv are fishing with the regulars at Acorn tomorrow so if anyone needs advice on robbing pensioners give Tony Rixon a ring x

Wednesday, 2 November 2016

Thanks to all who attended yesterday's meeting,Please note that all Christmas Match money needs to be paid at (or before) the December meeting (Tues 6th). After that date the list will be closed so that we can organise the correct number of prizes (no exceptions)Also, as there won't be a January meeting Will will be taking bookings for January's matches starting with Sedges on 15th JanAdditionally, our wonderful Chairman & Treasurer Mike Wilson (after many years of sterling work behind the scenes managing the club) has decided after much thought to retire from duties as of next year's Agm (again) so in the meantime if anyone fancies giving it a go feel free to volunteer.And I would like to add on behalf of all the Psv membership a big thanks to Mike for all his hard work

Thursday, 6 October 2016

Once the early morning mist had cleared we were treated to a last taste of summer, not the best of conditions for fishing but I wasn't complaining as I doubt there will be many more t-shirt days for a few months so I was happy to make the most of it and give the "lucky legs" (thanks Bela) a final airing.

This was my second consecutive trip to Shiplate as I have been roped into their Teams of 3 series supporting Ryan and Mark Radford. Last Sunday I was on Hawthorns (8) and did ok with 50lbs or so which put me around mid-section but Mark let the side down and we didn't do too well.
The "B-team" consisting of Alan Healey, Matt Taynton and Lionel Legge did a little better coming joint first on the day but beaten on weight. Saying that though it was hardly surprising having drawn 3 end pegs!

Anyway back to today then and, as ever, the day started with breakfast at Lilypool which came with a healthy tirade of abuse from just about everyone in there but mostly from a certain local celebrity who used to win a lot before Trigger came good so now earns a meagre living from robbing pensioners at the Acorn cost cutters???
Down at the fishery (more abuse) but only nine of us fishing today as Matt Williams had shyed off to go see Bridget Jones at the cinema .... apparently the cinema round his way only shows "chick flicks" on Sundays and it's a big thing for him, Brian Shanks couldn't afford to go as Ron wasn't booked in and somebody else had a pretty lame excuse but I've forgotten!
Draw done and lo-and-behold, Alan Healey draws peg 15 and Adam Caswell draws 1, so that was the two fliers gone and I grabbed the last ticket which put me on 14.
Not the worst, actually not bad at all, but it meant I would have to listen to Alan "I've only brought a tip rod" and Adam all day!

I had, for once, done a bit of preparation on Saturday night which was good so I set up 4 top kits:
A margin rig for the bush on the left, a shallow pellet rig and two rigs for on the deck at 13m
One for skimmers and the other to take a banded pellet.
Also a pellet wag which I wasn't putting much faith in as it was a bit bright and calm, and a straight lead as I had bought a new 10' lead rod and wanted to christen it.
Bait ... 6's and 8's, micros and a pint of dead reds for the skimmers and down the edge.
(And some for Alan as they don't sell maggots round his way)
For company, but all out of sight, I had former "Silvers Slayer" Lee Waller on 13, Lee Williams on 11 (also slaying silvers) and the Gimp on 9 (no doubt slaying silvers)

I shouted the all-in at 10:15 and potted a small ball of micros / mags at 13m and fired out a few 8's as far as they'd go whilst listening to Alan and Adam "debating" where the boundaries of their respective pegs were and to be fair to Adam he's pretty good at casting round corners.
[Please note that at this point self-confessed venue expert Alan "only brought a tip rod" Healey was still pretty smug after drawing the best peg on the lake]

Out on the skimmer rig with 2 dead reds on the hook and I started catching small 3/4oz skimmers straight away but I stuck with it in the hope that their bigger relatives would move in. They didn't though and they weren't liking my 10/12 elastic very much so I swapped over to a lighter elastic and that change brought about my first carp which wasn't very big thankfully and came in without too much drama.

Meanwhile the "Silvers Slayer" next door wasn't doing much slaying, Adam had landed a couple of carp from around the corner of his peg and Alan was entertaining the ducks and muttering something about "they're not always there"!
To add to his cheer I hooked and landed a double on the maggot rig but it churned the peg up so I re-fed it and had a go with the lead rod.
That only produced a few liners and knocks from small fish so I gave the pellet wag a go and as expected that never produced either despite the fact that I could see fish coming to the feed.
It seemed as though they were attracted to the noise of the pellets but weren't interested in feeding.
But just as I was about to knock it on the head I hooked a fish that came in like a wet sack and turned out to be a 12lb grass carp (weighed and returned after showing Alan what a 12lb fish looks like)

I gave the wag rod a miss and had a go with slapping a shallow rig around as there were a few fish cruising around on the pole line and that produced one small-ish carp but it knackered the rig in the landing net so I spent another hour playing around with the mini-skimmers in the hope of ... catching a decent weight of skimmers but it wasn't going to happen with fish of that size so I dumped a pot of pellet on the skimmer line and it started fizzing straight away.

By now we were into the last hour and the Silvers Slayer had stopped whining and started slaying, Pete Uzzell had finally lost the lump he'd snared on a silvers rig and been playing since 11 o'clock, Chris Szakacs had lost a 20lb fish at the net, Lee Williams had started his blog and was writing about how he'd have won the match twice over if he had have fished for carp and Alan had eventually managed to get a few in his net.
I had managed a couple more carp on the ex-skimmer line and then with 30 minutes to go I "hooked" a proper one that took me the rest of the match to land.

Alan was first to weigh and his tip-rod only approach had let him down badly .... 42lbs 6oz
My 8lbs of mini-skimmers pushed my total to 71-9 which secures my place in next years' winners final.
Adam took 2nd position with 57-7 and Mark Radford claimed 3rd place with 49-0
Lee Waller's late run of decent skimmers paid off securing the silvers pool with 15-12 mostly caught on worm in the last hour.

Oak lake is the newest match lake at Stafford and was formerly a stock pond.

The main quarry are small carp up to 2lbs with odd bigger fish and plenty of skimmers, crucians and small tench etc

We were told to expect around 100lbs to win it and 70 would be a good weight so plenty of bites to be expected.

I drew peg 5 which looked nice as it was stuck out into the lake on a small spit and I was told it was a consistent peg ... Ok, a flyer! (That's my inconspicuous net in the picture)

For company today I had match organiser, Frodo Dearlove to my left and one half of Psv's new dynamic duo, Luke Pester to my right.

Neither though were in my section as my peg was in a separate section along with the corner and end pegs.

Due mainly to lack of preparation and suitable rigs I opted for a simple approach, pellet shallow out in front and corn down the edges.

Plumbing up the margins were around a foot to 18 inches deep but I found a deeper area to my left which seemed inviting even if it meant setting up an extra rig. Frodo liked it too and set up about a foot away despite having an empty peg to his left but I'm all for sharing and watching 2 floats is double the excitement.

Most others had elected to fish on the deck further out which was a bit of a concern but never mind.

I won't go into too much detail, I had a few shallow, I never bothered with a deep rig and I caught reasonably well from my margins in the last few hours.

Frodo enjoyed himself catching from most areas including the empty peg to his left and my peg.

Luke had a very barren 4 hours before he dumped a. Load of pellet out long and fished paste over it.

For the last 2 hours he had one a chuck, it was a pleasure to behold (honest).

I ended up being Teriyaki'd which for the uneducated means lightly battered both sides.

I weighed 65-7, Luke had 66-9 and Frodo won his section with 67-15

The match was won by Luke's other half, Keith Bilder with 97-11 from corner peg 12 followed by Mike Wilson (below) with 93-6 from peg 9 (also a corner), which put me third in that section so not a great start points-wise but an enjoyable days fishing nonetheless.

And I had a clean sweep of pound coins from Pete and Steve sledgehammer Sewell helped by the fact they were both fishing for silvers!

The silvers was won by Pete Uzzell (and didn't we know it) with 16-4 from the other side of Frodo's empty peg.

(Did I mention that Will had an empty peg next to him)!

Tanners, Saturday 27 August

At this point it might be worth mentioning that most of us were staying at the Duke of York in some remote outpost about 10 minutes drive from the fishery.

And that they were hosting a beer festival over the bank holiday weekend along with live music, Barbeque etc

And that some of us decided to make the most of the facilities on offer.

I went to bed early (A few didn't)!

Anyways, I drew peg 35 which is another good peg (long walk).

34,35 and 36 are very close together and the pegs are offset to the right, presumably to make it easier to ship poles back as the speci carp lake is directly behind.

No pole for me today as I would be fishing the pellet wag / lead with the assistance of a bit of breeze that was coming from behind and slightly left.

I was to be sharing this bit of water with Keith Bilder on 34 and Pete Uzzell was on 36 which is generally considered the best peg on the lake but Pete was "suffering" slightly (see note above).

The sections were a bit wierd again today, I was in with Pete, Frodo on 3, Lionel left-hook Legge on 9 and Keith Ray on 13 (so yes, Frodo had plenty of space)

The match started frustratingly for both myself and Keith, lots of missed bites and lost foulers with the odd fish landed on both lead and wag.

It never started at all for Pete!

Keith's other half, Luke had a decent start over in the far corner (peg 1) but it wasn't to last.

Keith had a midway change of tactics and switched to paste which produced some big fish and he was by now well clear of me. I was having a bit of trouble with the wag so I took it off and employed the services of "super-wag", an 8gr, foot-long bodied effort which Pete found highly amusing despite the fact that it went under about 95% more often than his tip moved!

I ended the day with a fairly poor 53-13 but that wasn't quite as poor as Pete's 18-5

The match was won by Keith next door with 104-15 but luckily no chance of being chip-shopped today!

Silvers went to a very happy Matt Williams with 23-10 from peg 30

who was probably still laughing at his mate Pete's dismal effort

Second place went to Chris too smooth Szakacs with 103-2 from peg 18

Unfortunately Chris was "too smooth" to get off his box and get another net out so the 10lb of skimmers he chucked back proved costly!

Woodpecker, Sunday 28 August

Everybody got together at the Duke of York to celebrate Lee Waller's birthday, the celebrations weren't quite as intense as Friday night's but at least I stayed up until nearly 11 and I even dressed up for the occasion.

This time round I drew peg 8, a very long chuck to the island but the margins looked inviting, and after being battered 2 days running by Luke and Keith's "big potting" tactics I even set up a banded pellet rig for 13m.

In my section today I had Ross Sewell on 6 (peg 7 nonexistent), Keith Bilder on 12 with an easy wag chuck to the island and Ricket Ron (venue expert) on 14 so no expectations of going out in a blaze of glory today

I started on the pole after filling it in with pellet and first drop-in hooked and landed a double (happy days), second drop I bumped one so refed and went out on the wag.

Despite the conditions being perfect for it with a light breeze from directly behind it was slow, I was getting odd fish but missing most bites.

Keith was having the same problems judging by the thrashing noises coming from down there.

Around the corner it seemed Luke Pester was getting a few on the wag and Lee Waller was catching down his edge on 36.

I could see fish in my margins so I spent a torrid few hours down there, they like to take you under the tree roots and round the corner in this peg!

Many rigs and a number 6 section later I managed a total of 79-4 which was good enough for second in the section.

Keith had a "good" last hour (his words) on the wag and ended up with 148-0 which easily won the section and the overall series.

The match was won by birthday boy Lee Waller with 148-7 from peg 36

3rd place went to Luke Pester with 130-5 from peg 34.

Series Overall:

1. Keith Bilder

2. Keith Ray

3. Frodo Dearlove

4. Luke Pester

The overall silvers was a close run affair with Pete Uzzell, Matt Williams and Steve Sewell all level on points going into the final match. Matt took the honours weighing in 16-0 from peg 32.

Well done to all on making it an enjoyable weekend and thanks Lee and Will for organising

Monday, 15 August 2016

Another new venue for the club this week. Todber Manor fishery in Dorset which is famed for some quality big carp and catfish fishing and is also home to several decent match lakes, the club were originally booked into Hillview lake but after a few drop outs the match was moved to the smaller Homeground lake which has only been open a few months, no one knew any information about the lake and all we were told was that it was stuffed with silvers along with a huge head of small stockie carp in the 12oz to 1lb bracket along with a decent amount of fish in the 3-6lb bracket.

After all the drop outs we ended up 11 and will decided to pay top two with two sections, and being a brand new lake i dont think anyone was to fussed where they drew.

unfortunately the match itself was slightly overshadowed by a serious incident that happened to Adam Caswell half way through the match. Adam who has type one diabetes suffered a serious diabetic hypo, lucky for Adam Brian Shanks on the next peg was quick to see what was happening and just about got to him in time before he collapsed into the lake and with the help of Ryan Radford managed to get him off his box and into the recovery position, Mike Wilson and Will Dearlove quickly sorted an ambulance and many thanks must go to the fishery team who had a member of staff who was a first aider come sit with Adam until the medical team arrived. Pretty soon he was in an ambulance and on his way to Yeovil general hospital where he is now and in a stable condition, i'm sure everyone in the club would like to wish Adam a speedy recovery and hopefully he will be back on the bank soon.

Back to the fishing and with mostly flat calm bright conditions it was credit that most people seemed to be getting a few bites, Mike Wilson and Ron Hardiman were straight into the small stockies on the carpark bank along with Alan Healy, Adam and Brian shanks on the far bank.

My match started very slowly as i really struggled to suss the venue out, drawing 83 which is a corner peg on the far bank id planned on a pellet attack at 13 metres, a short meat line and with a long margin to my right a groundbait attack later in the match, after two hours i had about 5lb in the net wich consisted of about ten micro tench and the same amount of bottletop skimmers, dropping in on the short meat line brought the same result and stamp of fish that was until a bait change made all the difference, slipping a piece of corn on the float buried and stockie number one was soon in the net out again and the same result.

After feeding groundbait down the edge for most of the match the last two hours the fish turned up in force stirring up the bottom and clouding up my whole margin and i took a stockie on most put ins along with the odd better one right to the end, Lee williams on the opposite corner also had a great last few hours taking fish regular on his margins and short lines,

One angler who seemed to be getting through the stockies and taking the bigger samples was Brian Shanks on 85 and come the end was catching some proper carp on his long shallow line, those bigger fish were more than enough to give him the win weighing a decent 101lb 9oz

My late flurry enabled me to take second place with 87lb 4oz and the two sections were taken by Alan Healy and Ron Hardiman respectively who just edged out Lee by a few ounces,

FULL RESULT

BRIAN SHANKS 101LB 9oz PEG 85

CHRIS SZAKACS 87LB 4oz 83

RON HARDIMAN 81LB 11oz 78

LEE WILLIAMS 81LB 2oz 81

ALAN HEALY 61LB 2oz 88

WILL DEARLOVE 51LB 79

MIKE WILSON 50LB 8oz 76

MARK RADFORD 43LB 10oz 90

RYAN RADFORD 29LB 89

MAT WILLIAMS 27LB 8oz 82

ADAM CASWELL 16LB 12oz 86

A very nice venue with plenty of bites and hopefully we will get a few more matches down there in the future,

18 Fishing today and with alot of fish in close proximity to the areator Will Dearlove kept his good run of form going making no mistake from peg 130 catching all his fish on straight lead and pellet tactics weighing 141lb 13oz, second and fishing the same way from 115 was Wills father inlaw Keith Ray weighing 132lb 13oz and in third was myself catching a few on the pole and a few on lead weighing 108lb 14oz

Tuesday, 9 August 2016

Something a bit unusual for the club this week as it was the clubs very first visit to the midlands bagging mecca that is Boddingtons reservoir, most people had done they're research and it was always gonna be a rod only match fishing a variety of method,straight lead and pellet wag tactics. A few of the guys had made the trip up before staying in local b&bs and there was talk at the draw of a semi naked Pete Uzell wandering into Wills room during the night but what goes on tour obviously stays on tour!

The club were fishing on the dam wall pegs 1-16 and with the wind blowing down into the early numbers this seemed like the more favourable draw

The match itself followed the same pattern for nearly everybody to varying levels of success as in most had a few pulls in the first hour followed by a barren dire spell for the hours middle match as the carp backed off into the expanse of the reservoir and then the fish returning en mass in the last hour and a half to binge on the pellet mountain that everyone had been feeding all day. The guys that done the best were those that managed to keep the odd fish coming mid match.

I drew peg 12 and had self confessed pellet wag expert Steve Burgess next to me on 11 and on 13 was Mike Wilson who dosnt know what a wag is! or a lead or a method feeder and im not sure he was totally sure what a rod and reel are ether as he started the match 15mins later than everyone else still trying to set up!

Duhh!

My plan was start on the method whilst feeding 8mms as far as i could fire them hopefully catching on the lead and wag later in the day, i did have dreams of a mega bagging session as my first three chucks resulted in three wrap rounds and 30lb in the net followed by err.....nothing for the next three hours.

Now most of the club are used to fishing viaduct and doing battle with scary cary monsters but the fish in Boddingtons are on another level, averaging 8-16lb they are proper tackle testers with probably the most aggressive takes that i have ever encountered. Someone who can testify to this was Keith Ray on peg 10 who after a very quiet match had his expensive Daiwa rod and reel combo ripped off his lap into the reservoir, the butt of the rod luckily stayed afloat doing its best jaws impression, also lucky was that as it got to about 30metres out the fish changed direction and started running parallel to the bank and as it passed myself i managed to drop a lead just in front and hook the butt and much to keiths relief retrieved the rod with fish still attached, keith then clambered back to his peg and promptly lost the fish at the net!

The last hour was frantic for everyone even Steve Burgess started catching on the wag! looking along the bank rods were bent double everywhere.

One angler who seemed to be doing better than most was Will Dearlove on peg 7 who fished a really tidy match fishing a small method and boilie at long range taking fish at regular intervals to win the match with a creditable 147lb 13oz

In second spot was Paul Preston on end peg 2 and Paul had and interesting and frustrating match as he easily hooked enough fish to win twice over but in an extremely snaggy and weedy peg he lost alot more than he landed ending with 124lb

Third was Alan Healy on yet another flyer peg 5 who fished similar tactics to will ending up with a decent 122lb 11oz

FULL RESULT

WILL DEARLOVE 147LB 13OZ PEG 7

PAUL PRESTON 124LB 2

ALAN HEALY 122LB 11OZ 5

MATT WILLIAMS 111LB 6OZ 4

CHRIS SZAKACS 92LB 12OZ 12

RYAN RADFORD 80LB 14

MARK RADFORD 75LB 8OZ 3

STEVE BURGESS 75LB 8OZ 11

PETE UZZEL 74LB 7OZ 8

ADAM CASWELL 73LB 15OZ 9

STEVE SEWELL 68LB 12OZ 6

KEITH RAY 62LB 10OZ 10

MIKE WILSON 36LB 10OZ 13

AND ONE DNW

Most people really enjoyed the match as it was a different sort of fishing than most of us are used too and hopefully another trip will be booked in the near future.

Saturday, 16 July 2016

I was a bit worse for wear when the alarm went off this morning following a late night sampling the delights of Staple Hill but I just about made it to Hilltops cafe for breakfast.
It was quite busy in there probably as there was a delay while they cooked up a special for Bela although it has to be said he is now a picture of physical perfection and the envy of many.
A full house today with 20 fishing which was good to see, payouts were for the top 3, 1 silvers and 2 sections plus a Pairs match just to spice things up a bit.
Will had split the sections across the lake as opposed to a section on each bank which was a good move giving those down the sheltered end a chance of picking up, he has been trained well!
There was a bit of conflicting information during the pre-draw discussions over the results of Lee Wiliams's Saturday match on the lake. (see here)
Apparently some were saying there were had been seven weights over 100lbs but I had heard peg 10 had walked it with 150-odd but the next best weight was half that and quite a few had struggled.
I suspect they were getting mixed up with a match on Tile or another match that had involved some decent anglers!
Anyway, the Gimp drew peg 10 so it was unlikely to be producing a three-figure weight today.
Somehow I managed to avoid drawing a corner and ended up in the middle of nowhere on 15.
My pairs partner Matt Williams drew peg 2 which was going to be tough as the wind was pushing up the opposite end towards 11 which was occupied by Degsy Williams.
I made sure though before the draw I had £1's with Alan Healey, Steve Sewell and Pete Uzzell just to cover my losses and make sure I went home with something.
Alan drew next door to me on 14 so I could keep a close eye on that pound.
On my left side was the "Silvers Slayer" Lee Waller who was not very well hidden behind the reeds ... a few more months of growing would be required before he would be completely obscured.
Today I had a cunning plan, well it wasn't much of a plan as it was the same thing I always do at Sedges and involved a 6g pellet wag, a brand new catapult (I've lost 2 at recent Viaduct matches) and lots of 8mm pellets but I also had a back-up plan which involved lots of corn and a tin of hemp to fish on the deck at 13m and down the edge.
The left hand edge was a no-go as I couldn't get the rig anywhere close to the edge due to collapsed reeds under the surface so I set up 2 rigs at top kit plus 2 down the right margin.
One tight against the vegetation at 3 foot deep and the other a meter off where it was a foot or so deeper.

At the start I gave all the pole lines a generous helping of corn and hemp then went out on the wag after firing out a healthy dose of pellets towards the rope.

Most were doing the same, including Chris Gay on 7 who had a carp on within minutes.

And it didn't take long for my first one either which I suspected was fouled but it turned out to be a fairly hooked common of 14lbs ... not a bad start by any means.
The match started slowly for most and in the first hour I had a smaller carp plus another double that put me well into the running.
Both Alan and Lee had started off on the pole and neither were getting any bites, it seemed the only carp being caught were coming on the wag or shallow on the pole.
I had a quick look round my pole lines and never had a touch on the deep rig while the edge rig was being pestered by small fish.
Back out on the wag and it was still hard work and was made harder as the wind had increased and was pushing back towards our bank.
By halfway bites were still hard to come by and those that I was getting I was missing due to slack forming in the line, a few were walking the bank and the news was that some hadn't caught anything but Degsy Williams was, predictably, doing well on 11 and so too was Luke Pester on 8.
There was a lot of fizzing going on out on my wag line so reluctantly I set up a lead rod and chucked that out.
It did produce one fish and another when I struck at an "iffy" bite that came off almost straight away.
I was getting loads of liners so I swapped back to the wag but with a 10g pike float on instead.
That was an improvement and I managed a couple more fish on this before the end.
My pole lines never produced anything.
Alan did eventually catch a carp but it was the smallest carp in the lake at about 2lbs (he got a bit of stick today bless him)

As expected the match was won by Degsy Williams with 95-12 followed by Luke with 83-4
and Ryan Radford was 3rd with 57-7
My seven fish total went 56-5 which got me the section and (more importantly) all 3 pound coins.
The silvers was won by the gimp with 13-7 and the pairs was won by Ryan and the gimp who had mugged a 14½lb fish on his silvers gear just to enter into the spirit of things.

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